Paraty Under the Sun (Well, Under the Partly Sunny)

Igreja de Nossa Senhora das Dores. Our Lady of the Sorrows. Why the sorrow? It's closed for renovation.

The plan for my three days and four nights in Paraty is decompression. I don't have a schedule. This really isn't the type of town where you have a schedule and check the items off one by one. This is more of a "sit around, lay around, and absorb" sort of town.

Today's agenda was to mosey. This is the view looking down Rua Ten. Francisco Antonion.

This is the view from the bridge Ponte Portal, looking out to the Atlantic or, at least the Bay.

Same bridge. Looking landward.

Rua Ten. Francisco Antonio. Now with horses. Well, one horse. There'll be more.

The Centro Histórico of Paraty is quite small, maybe an eight block by eight block rectangle (not a square, the blocks are longer east-west than north-south) (for some reason not germane to my moseying).

This is Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário e São Benedito. Church of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Benedict.

As befits a colonial town in Latin America, the place is lousy with churches all in a state of splendid decay. In fact, I would describe the whole of the Centro Histórico as being in a state of photogenic decay.

And then I looked down Rua Santa Rita and saw water.

Let's mosey on down to the water. Not too fast, though, we are in a moseying mood. And here, at the end of Rua Santa Rita, you're going to find this hard to believe, was:

Igreja Santa Rita! The Church of Santa Rita.

And it is protected from invasion by the French by holy cannon fire.

This would be the signature view of Paraty except that it is missing one thing. Water.

The signature view has the waters of the bay in the foreground. Which means, unless one can walk on water and I cannot, that you have to be in a boat to get that shot. I booked a boat tour for tomorrow (unofficially, by word, not internet, so it doesn't go against the spirit of the mosey). Let's see if I get that signature pic.

So let's mosey along the beach.

Well, first, let's mosey down the pier.

This is boat I booked for a two hour of the bay tomorrow, before the Brazil game in the World Cup. Everything in Brazil comes to halt when Brazil is playing in the World Cup. It's like that movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Only it's only Brazil that's standing still.

The Maria Flor. Looks seaworthy. But what do I know about seaworthiness.

Obligatory artsy shot:

I promised you more horses and ... I am failing to deliver. There are horse carriages in this picture:

The horses are there. Trust me. I just can't see them in the photo. They must be wearing their invisibility cloaks that they use to prevent turistas from snapping their pictures without paying for a ride. Guilty.

And we're back at the Ponte Portal, to cross over the bridge (dang that sounds so ominously final), to walk across the bridge (much less ominous) to go Praia do Portal, the main beach in the area around the historic core of Paraty.

More boats in the river or canal or creek or drainage channel or whatever it is. Google maps refuses to give this little river a name.

And we find beachfront physical fitness equipment adjacent to the beach. Including free weights! Just like Arporador and Ipanema in Rio.

But neither surfer-soaked Arporador not fancy-fancy Ipanema have a fish sculpture to match this!

They do have hippies on the beach singing, dancing and playing musical instruments however. So, on at that score, the beaches are level.

There were not many people in the water today.

Just about as many dogs.

More dogs that giant birds of some sort. This one looks kind of condor-ish.

It was very loud when it flew away to avoid me getting a second picture. Everyone and everything hates the paparazzi.

And just like that, it was time to scurry home to catch the Croatia/Belgium game. Yes, scurry. No time to mosey as the game had already started. Only one of those teams was going to advance to the knockout round. Belgium's nickname is the Red Devils. Because they are Satan's team. (See, e.g., King Leopold and the subjugation of the Belgian Congo.) That means Croatia was God's team, as evidenced by the fact that two Belgian shots on goal hit the crossbar. Croatia could do it with a win or a tie. And ... DRAW!!!! A glorious draw, one of those glorious draws.

Yes, watching World Cup soccer is a VERY Brazilian thing to do on vacation.

Domingo na Olinda

Igreja do São Francisco

Time for a Sunday morning walking tour of Olinda.

First off, in case I am leaving the impression that I am not enjoying this trip, that is completely not true.  Walking long distances soaked to the skin in the incessant "winter" rains of Northeastern Brazil isn't what I like to do for a vacation, but it's no big deal.  It's all part of the adventure.  And, so far, going to the games has been a great experience.

Today was the first day to be a tourist.  And Olinda, Pernambuco, is a nice place to play turista.  Olinda is the beautiful, historic, colonial city just to the north of modern, sprawling, crime-infested Recife.

A humid morning at the Igreja do São Francisco

Just up the hill from the Hotel 7 Colinas compound is the beautiful, ornate, decaying Igreja do São Francisco, right here on Rua de São Francisco. From there we could see the highest point in Olinda.

Plaza opposite Igreja do São Francisco, high point in the center

Which appeared to be another church.  As one would expect of a colonial era town, Olinda is lousy with churches.  And, I am sure, every one a Catholic.

Decay

The church at the top of the hill was in an even more pronounced state of decay.  But the view was nice:

Nothing decaying about the view

See the modern skyline of Recife off in the background?  From there it was a walk down the hill to the coastline.

Walking down the hill and what do I see? A decaying church!

The narrow cobblestone streets definitely were designed for the pre-automotive era.  A fact that was abundantly clear driving in the day before.

Oceanfront Olinda

Olinda is most definitely not a beach town, or even a port town, despite its waterfront location.  Recife is the port city.  The Boa Viagem neighborhood -- where most of the people we spoke with who were traveling to this game were staying -- is the beach town.  Olinda has the history.

To the lighthouse!

And it has a lighthouse!

This must be one of those sexy brasileiros we hear so much about

There is something of a "boardwalk" along the Olinda waterfront.  But it's not a swimming beach:

That boat isn't going to float very far from there

Not all of the churches are in a state of decay:

Church of São Somebody or Another. I guess I could've looked. But, man, it was humid out here in the Pernambuco winter sun.

And many of the buildings are in pristine condition:

A biblioteca

 Along this one street, every building seemed to be labelled "biblioteca," which I thought meant "library."  A whole of five or six buildings can't all be libraries, can they?

This building caught my eye as interesting looking:

Random building that caught my eye. I could probably say it was just about anything and who's reading this who knows Olinda well enough to question me?

I'm guessing because it was trimmed in crayon green.  The hot tropical sun, even in the brutal Pernambuco winter, was getting to me.  And I did want to get back to Natal before dark (and, no, not because at sundown every Brazilian city suddenly turns into "The Purge").  So it was time to head back to the Hotel 7 Colinas.  With its interesting statuary:

The woman depicted is most certainly brasileira. The clue? A bunda. 

Never got to cool down in the pool, although it looked nice:

Pool at the Hotel 7 Colinas

The hotel was great. It was a shame we were staying here for only one night, although only one night is sufficient for the Recife/Olinda Greater Metropolitan Statistical Area.  The hotel had this "British East India Company" feel to it.  It was a gated compound.  We were greeted at check in with caipirinhas, gratis, which were strong even by the ordinary standards of caipirinhas. The landscaping was great and added to the feel of isolation from the grittier surroundings.  I would stay here again should my travels bring me to this town.

But with the stadium so inaccessible from the town itself, I am glad we did not decide to camp out in Recife for the week we're at the World Cup.  Back to much more manageable Natal.

We got back to Natal at dusk.  Dinner at the Tabua de Carne rodozio style churrascaria a short drive from the hotel.  I took my camera to take pictures but, alas, camera batteries went dead and I got no pictures.  But I will say this, the Americans are definitely "in the house," as the kids would say, for Monday's USA v. Ghana game, game three of our four-game trip.